Collaborating for Care: New Models for Retail Health Care

By: Cathy Polley, RPh, Vice President, Health & Wellness, FMI & Executive Director, FMI Foundation 

What does your doctor’s office look like? Where did you receive your most recent flu shot? Ten years ago there wouldn’t be much variability in the way Americans answered these questions, but that’s not true for today’s health care consumer.

The way we consume health care in the United States is changing at a rapid pace. With pharmacies, supermarkets and other mass retailers entering the health care market, an increasing number of consumers are taking advantage of the convenience of retail health care locations for nutritional counseling and basic medical care. While the prevalence and usage of these clinics is increasing, retail health care centers have critical obstacles to overcome:

• Consumers are more willing to seek services from retail clinics that are run in partnership with local hospitals or health care providers;
• Consumers are unaware of the availability or services provided by their local retail clinic; 
• Consumers are more willing to take advantage of the retail clinic if the cost of services provided are less than that of alternatives; 
• Consumers see less value in traditional health care services delivered at retail clinics.

To combat these consumer trends, retailers interested in reaching the health care consumer have to identify new models of care that effectively combine convenience, cost and access of retail health care with the quality and trust level afforded by traditional health care settings.

Retailers are answering this call by partnering with traditional health care providers. For example, SpartanNash’s Point of Care testing pilot program is administered throughout the state of Michigan under a study promoted by the University of Nebraska, Omaha. In this model, SpartanNash signed a collaborative practice agreement with a board certified physician to develop protocol for rapid influenza, rapid strep testing and pharmacotherapeutic treatment in the event of a positive test. The physician developed and approved protocol is then implemented at retail by SpartanNash pharmacists. Michigan consumers can trust in the knowledge that the attending pharmacist is adhering to a physician prescribed treatment and care plan, while deriving the cost and time saving benefits of retail delivered health care.